camberwell fox
Well-Known Member
I still maintain if we only had our current squad it would be good enough to finish above at least the bottom six in the PL.
I Completely agree.
I still maintain if we only had our current squad it would be good enough to finish above at least the bottom six in the PL.
I still maintain if we only had our current squad it would be good enough to finish above at least the bottom six in the PL.
Who is the little guy in the middle?
I don't mean to poo poo your celebrations. Not really I don't.
But there is a massive difference between a largely young squad over-flowing with confidence because they're winning every week and one that have to scrape points here and there and take some beatings. When we started losing last season, many of our current 'star's went missing big time and their form collapsed.
I think it's highly unlikely that we'll just breeze into the Premier League with the same confidence and it won't be hit by getting occasional whippings. Honestly, it's as though we've not been in the top league for a decade or something for how people are under-estimating it.
Who is the little guy in the middle?
In all seriousness then, what do you think our approach to the season should be?
Thanks for asking.
We need to build the best quality group possible within the budget available. If we need to be harsh to a Hammond or a Dyer and ditch them for someone better, we do it. If you're skint, you have to make do. But we're not.
Absolutely, we keep the bulk of this group together but we supplement them with an additional keeper with some pedigree, 2-3 defenders, 2 midfielders (one holding, one creative) and a major striker signing.
As I've said elsewhere, look at any promoted team and a year later their side is almost unrecognisable. Several of our current squad will not cope at the higher level. Personally, I don't think De Laet is good enough, I've got legitimate concerns about all our central defenders and we've not got a left back that I've got confidence in. Some will step up. Maybe Moore will kick on again like he did this year. Maybe Schlupp will focus on defending and come on bundles. But there are a lot of maybe's defensively and if we start conceding you cannot get new players in until January. This is a major difference to the Championship where if your left back gets injured, you just get another in on loan. We have to have a squad that can cope with set-backs.
We've got excellent Championship midfielders in Drinkwater, James, Mahrez and Knockaert. I'm sure some will kick on but I'm equally sure one or two won't. What happened to Drinkwater when we started losing last season? Are we really convinced it would never happen again? Who out of that four will pick up the floating attacking midfielders that almost all Premier League teams play? Who is physically strong enough to battle it out against much, much better players?
Up front, we cannot get away with two strikers most games next season. We could drop Nugent into midfield, but on their own, do we have a striker that can handle it? Wood and Vardy have shown excellent form at times but they're like a number of others. When it's all going well, it's great. When things aren't going well, they disappear. Look at Vardy's last 2-3 games or Wood for most of the last year.
Beyond the first choice line up, we've also got very little quality in depth. Even for the sake of numbers, we need at least six newbies.
I'm genuinely positive about our chances but if we only add a couple, we're taking a totally unnecessary and foolish risk.
Thanks for asking.
We need to build the best quality group possible within the budget available. If we need to be harsh to a Hammond or a Dyer and ditch them for someone better, we do it. If you're skint, you have to make do. But we're not.
Absolutely, we keep the bulk of this group together but we supplement them with an additional keeper with some pedigree, 2-3 defenders, 2 midfielders (one holding, one creative) and a major striker signing.
As I've said elsewhere, look at any promoted team and a year later their side is almost unrecognisable. Several of our current squad will not cope at the higher level. Personally, I don't think De Laet is good enough, I've got legitimate concerns about all our central defenders and we've not got a left back that I've got confidence in. Some will step up. Maybe Moore will kick on again like he did this year. Maybe Schlupp will focus on defending and come on bundles. But there are a lot of maybe's defensively and if we start conceding you cannot get new players in until January. This is a major difference to the Championship where if your left back gets injured, you just get another in on loan. We have to have a squad that can cope with set-backs.
We've got excellent Championship midfielders in Drinkwater, James, Mahrez and Knockaert. I'm sure some will kick on but I'm equally sure one or two won't. What happened to Drinkwater when we started losing last season? Are we really convinced it would never happen again? Who out of that four will pick up the floating attacking midfielders that almost all Premier League teams play? Who is physically strong enough to battle it out against much, much better players?
Up front, we cannot get away with two strikers most games next season. We could drop Nugent into midfield, but on their own, do we have a striker that can handle it? Wood and Vardy have shown excellent form at times but they're like a number of others. When it's all going well, it's great. When things aren't going well, they disappear. Look at Vardy's last 2-3 games or Wood for most of the last year.
Beyond the first choice line up, we've also got very little quality in depth. Even for the sake of numbers, we need at least six newbies.
I'm genuinely positive about our chances but if we only add a couple, we're taking a totally unnecessary and foolish risk.
Thanks for asking.
We need to build the best quality group possible within the budget available. If we need to be harsh to a Hammond or a Dyer and ditch them for someone better, we do it. If you're skint, you have to make do. But we're not.
Absolutely, we keep the bulk of this group together but we supplement them with an additional keeper with some pedigree, 2-3 defenders, 2 midfielders (one holding, one creative) and a major striker signing.
As I've said elsewhere, look at any promoted team and a year later their side is almost unrecognisable. Several of our current squad will not cope at the higher level. Personally, I don't think De Laet is good enough, I've got legitimate concerns about all our central defenders and we've not got a left back that I've got confidence in. Some will step up. Maybe Moore will kick on again like he did this year. Maybe Schlupp will focus on defending and come on bundles. But there are a lot of maybe's defensively and if we start conceding you cannot get new players in until January. This is a major difference to the Championship where if your left back gets injured, you just get another in on loan. We have to have a squad that can cope with set-backs.
We've got excellent Championship midfielders in Drinkwater, James, Mahrez and Knockaert. I'm sure some will kick on but I'm equally sure one or two won't. What happened to Drinkwater when we started losing last season? Are we really convinced it would never happen again? Who out of that four will pick up the floating attacking midfielders that almost all Premier League teams play? Who is physically strong enough to battle it out against much, much better players?
Up front, we cannot get away with two strikers most games next season. We could drop Nugent into midfield, but on their own, do we have a striker that can handle it? Wood and Vardy have shown excellent form at times but they're like a number of others. When it's all going well, it's great. When things aren't going well, they disappear. Look at Vardy's last 2-3 games or Wood for most of the last year.
Beyond the first choice line up, we've also got very little quality in depth. Even for the sake of numbers, we need at least six newbies.
I'm genuinely positive about our chances but if we only add a couple, we're taking a totally unnecessary and foolish risk.
I can understand all of that and to a certain extent I agree...but...when we were promoted last time round who would have envisaged that the group we had then would have been good enough?
I agree we need more strength in depth but ooh first 11 needs tweaking, if we lose the togetherness and dpirit we currently have I feel this will be to the detriment of staying up.
Of course over the duration of the season the team will evolve as it has this season and may well be largely different to it is now or how it looks at the beginning of the season.
I feel three new faces in the starting eleven along with more depth will see us mid table with additions arriving in the available windows.
Wholesale changes would be a disaster in my opinion.
- Kasper Schmeichel
- Ritchie De Laet
- Paul Konchesky
- Danny Drinkwater
- Wes Morgan
- Dean Hammond
- Matty James
- Jamie Vardy
- Andy King
- Lloyd Dyer
[*]Sean St Ledger- Jeff Schlupp
- Liam Moore
[*]Tom Hopper
[*]Zoumana Bakayogo
[*]Gary Taylor-Fletcher
[*]Ignasi Miquel- Anthony Knockaert
- Conrad Logan
- Riyad Mahrez
- Marcin Wasilewski
[*]Kevin Phillips
[*]Adam Smith- David Nugent
- Chris Wood
Who is the little guy in the middle?
It's Knockaert's cousin
This is very good.
out of curiosity, how do you know this?
P | Pld | Pts | |
1 | Liverpool | 11 | 28 |
2 | Manchester C | 11 | 23 |
3 | Chelsea | 11 | 19 |
4 | Arsenal | 11 | 19 |
5 | Nottm F | 11 | 19 |
6 | Brighton | 11 | 19 |
7 | Fulham | 11 | 18 |
8 | Newcastle | 11 | 18 |
9 | Aston Villa | 11 | 18 |
10 | Tottenham | 11 | 16 |
11 | Brentford | 11 | 16 |
12 | Bournemouth | 11 | 15 |
13 | Manchester U | 11 | 15 |
14 | West Ham | 11 | 12 |
15 | Leicester | 11 | 10 |
16 | Everton | 11 | 10 |
17 | Ipswich | 11 | 8 |
18 | Palace | 11 | 7 |
19 | Wolves | 11 | 6 |
20 | Southampton | 11 | 4 |